Eros and Pathos (Studies in Jungian Psychology)

Disclaimer: I generally believe that Jung's approach to psychology, the offshoot of psychoanalysis known as analytic psychology, is based on certain notions that are scientifically unconscionable and even metaphysically difficult to swallow. These include archetypes, the collective unconscious, and other approaches to explaining human experience that are, for lack of a better term, essentially mythological. I mention this because Carotenuto is a Jungian analyst. That having been said, this book is incredible in terms of the depth of psychological insight that it conveys. In its execution, Carotenuto makes a compelling case, overall, for what we might posit as the spirit of the truth that animates Jungian thought. This might be had as the observation that a number of dichotomies Carotenuto broaches in this book are all, in some sense, complementary as much as they are opposites: the mythopoetic and the scientific, the expressive and the analytical, "negativity" and "positivity" in the realm of the affects, love and hatred, the conscious and unconscious. Nowhere is the strange eclipse of darkness and light within the realm of human experience more tangible, as the author points out, as in the phenomenon of erotic or romantic love: that most outwardly celebrated and cherished human experience, whose dark underbelly has always been and must be the most terrible sort of madness and suffering. What I like most about the book, in the last analysis, is that the breathtaking insight of the author isn't just there for the sake of impressing the attuned reader, which it certainly will. It is rather mounted to the task of fostering of persuading the reader towards an acceptance of what ordinary experience and common wisdom both compell us to reject: for all the pain it tends to bring, the far worse option than attempting to love is to let our sneering pride and rationalizing prudence close us off to its possibility. Finally, he peppers his argument with an impressive breadth of excerpts and poems from a wide range of writers and thinkers, which helps to bring the point home in a way that makes this work truly shine. Fair warning: if you've tried to love and have failed, as almost everyone has, reading this book will be a lot like analytic work with a psychologist. This is so in that the possibility for liberation and growth that can come of the experience is great, but no less than the pain it can cause in its way of making you face yourself.

I love this book! The reviewers here have already said all that needs to be said. If you are wondering what being in love is about psychoanalytically, if you are suffering in love and want to transform the experience or even just happily in love and want to deepen your experience, this book will totally give you lot of new insight into being in love and being the object of another's erotic love.That said, why, oh why is this book, my copy of which had a retail sticker saying it originally cost around $13 - why is it going for between $33 and $89??? It's a sin, really, that such a small book, originally published in English by an organization designed to disseminate psychoanalytic information to the masses is only being offered at such a high premium.

in explaining the ungraspable realm of the emotion of love, especially the WHYs and HOWs of it - for instance why do we fall in love with a particual person and why no other can replace that person.. it will help you understand love, jealousy, suffering, fear of loss and all the confusing states we experience while faling in and out of love. it will also help you deal with your own emotions, especially when love turns into suffering, as it inevitably always does. on a downside, for a non-native english speaker author's writing style was really hard to follow.

Brilliant analyses; the antithesis to pop-psychology. This is a volume well-worth considering as a contribution to our understanding of difficult aspects of relationships--in particular, when a relationship comes to include a third-party antagonist or opportunist. I found Carotenuto's understanding deep, colored not only by psychoanalytic theory but also philosophy. I was particularly struck by this references to Martin Buber and his exposition of I-You and I-It--the profound and the objective (as in object-oriented) relationships. I think his contribution as important one, beyond what many marriage and family counselors and psychologists are able to offer.

This book might as well be scripture. Carotenuto offers a graceful and circumspect synthesis of paradox in love and life. I'll be passing along copies of this work to the end of my days.

Had some writing in it but the book had all its pages so that is good. Glad to find a copy that someone would part with too.

Very happy, thank you.

Very powerful. Not for a faint of heart.

Found new ways of looking at personal and intimate relationships having read this book. Definitely original in many ways and will reread it again.

Eros and Pathos is a book that's full of flowery, pretentious prose that wants to appear profound but most often is simply just contrary. Each sentence that makes sense is followed by another that's so wide of the mark as to seem deliberately perverse. And throughout it's permeated with an odour of Catholic guilt, as if love and desire can only be atoned for with pain. It's a handbook for the cult of suffering and for those disillusioned in love.Love, we are told, is accompanied by lies, deceit, guilt, hate, resentment and death wishes. Love is a betrayal, love without fear is not love at all. On and on it goes without any qualifying words to modify his assertions or to suggest that these conditions may not be universally applicable. Yes - love can be accompanied by these things but they aren't the defining elements of the experience. An elephant could be described as a herbivore that crushes ants but whilst this may be true in one sense, it misses its essential nature, its unique, innate elephantness.Rarely do I read a book that I find so difficult to relate to but the author's perceptions seem so remote from my own that I gave up half way through. Presumably it's intended as an antidote to the ubiquity of artistic works that extol the glories of love and if you're looking for such a revisionist approach then this book may please. Cynics may find it speaks to them but romantics certainly won't.'Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?' Not, if you've been reading this book you won't!

I highly recommend this book. It is beautifully written. It has clarity and depth revealing extraordinary insights into the human condition in general and specifically what it means to fall in and out of love.

all good

A beautiful read, profoundly insightful